Did you know that about 83% of people use Instagram to discover new services and products?
With 87% of these uses taking a specific action, like making a purchase, you don’t want to miss out on this target audience. With this in mind, you should use Instagram not just as a place for sharing videos and photos, but also for converting your audience into new customers.
But creating an Instagram page isn’t enough to grow your small business. You need an Instagram marketing plan to help your business succeed.
Below are seven tried and tested Instagram marketing tips you can use to scale your small business.
1. Focus on Lifestyle and Customer Journey
Most Instagram users are more enticed to artsy, lifestyle-based posts. As a small business owner, you need to join in on that if you want to attract attention to your products or services. Your posts should be captured in a raw, creative way that engages your viewers.
Your stories should feature behind-the-scenes moments like customer testimonials, candid shots of your office premises, and even advocacy-based projects.
To make your Instagram updates more interesting, you must rely on lifestyle photography to promote your product and service. This means you should show your customers how your products or services work in their intended environment. It helps give them a hint on what to expect after seeking out your services or buying your products.
What’s more, it helps build an emotional bond with potential customers, increasing their chances of engaging with your business.
2. Use Hashtags Wisely
Want your Instagram posts to have more engagements?
You should consider using relevant hashtags. Posts with hashtags tend to have more interactions from Instagram users than posts that don’t include them. Hashtags will help you boost the optimization of your posts, increasing the discovery rates by users.
When you use hashtags on Instagram, you should ensure you see how they perform before doing so. You can search your specific hashtags, monitoring their performance when you include them in your posts. To ensure your hashtags are performing well, they should be easy to read and contain at least eight to ten characters in length.
3. Post Product Teasers
Instagram is a great place to advertise your services and products. But if you’re too pushy with your social media marketing ads, your followers will feel overwhelmed and drop like flies. This is why you should play your cards right and use product teaser posts to increase customer excitement, without seeming like you’re trying too hard.
You can tease users with captivating imagery of your services and products, and even discounts.
When you tease your potential customers about products this way, while not pushing them into buying anything, they’re more likely to take initiative and actually make purchases. In case they don’t want to make purchases, they can at least engage with your post by commenting on it, liking it, or sharing it with loved ones.
4. Partner with Influencers for a Wider Reach
Do you wish to reach your potential customers on Instagram fast? Consider adding influencer marketing to your Instagram marketing strategy. Most people trust the influential people they follow, and prefer buying services and products they see in their feed.
Since influencers already have a large following, you can capture potential clients by letting them advertise your products and services. If you advertise your business on an influencer‘s Instagram page with about 400k followers, it means your brand has just exposed itself to thousands of potential customers.
To start this digital marketing campaign, you should first identify influencers that have an audience that’s relevant to your services and products. Apart from the short-term gains and direct sales, you can build lasting brand awareness with a new audience if you build a relationship with your influencer.
5. Use Instagram Live and Stories
If you want to generate leads, Instagram Live and Stories can help grow your business. While Instagram stories come in a “slideshow” format that appears at the top of the news feed for only 24 hours, Instagram Live allows you to have real-time interaction with your followers.
You can use stories to capture behind-the-scenes posts about your small business. The content you post here doesn’t have to align with the aesthetic of your brand. This makes it easy for you to experiment with different types of content, including photos, short videos, boomerangs, and more.
If you’re collaborating with an influencer or another brand, you can tag their accounts on your stories.
As for Instagram Live, you can have instant communication and feedback with your audience if you turn the comments own. You can use it to go behind the scenes and showcase your creative process, run a Q&A or conduct interviews.
6. Utilize Link in Bio
Looking to guide your followers to your website? Since Instagram doesn’t allow clickable links within the caption of a post, it may seem hard to market your website.
But you shouldn’t worry. Instagram allows you to add hyperlinks to the bio section within your profile. You can place a link to the homepage of your website or links about current promotions, sign-ups, and events.
7. Track Your Instagram Metrics
You can’t improve your Instagram marketing strategy unless you know how your page and posts are performing. Having measurable results helps you figure out what works and what doesn’t. You can start by tracking your follower growth rate.
It helps you see how your posts are affecting things.
Also, ensure you measure your engagement rates, including your likes and comments. You need to find out the average engagement rate of each post and the average engagement percentage of your total followers. If you have a small following, your engagement rate should be higher.
Additionally, ensure you track your URL click-through rate. This requires that you have a link on your bio. It helps you know how many people go back to your website.
Comprehensive Instagram Marketing Tips to Grow Your Business
Want to grow your business on Instagram? Consider the Instagram marketing tips above. At WSI Proven Results, we can take your Instagram marketing goals to create a personalized plan that produces actionable results.
Contact us if you want to market your business on Instagram.
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